Pritchard, 1938). Several attempts were made 

 in Washington State to reestablish arunofpink 

 salmon by transplanting fry, but the only self- 

 perpetuating population of pink salmon resulted 

 from the release of "short-term reared" fry 

 at a hatchery (Noble, 1963). A few attempts to 

 transplant small numbers of adult pink salmon 

 have yielded inconclusive results. 



Pink salmon live 2 years fronn fertilization 

 of ova to maturation as adults. The adults die 

 soon after spawning, and even- and odd-num- 

 bered brood years or lines^ are genetically 

 separate. They are often abundant or scarce 

 in alternate years in individual streams 

 throughout their range. This disparity in 

 numbers between even- and odd-year lines 

 may persist for a decade or longer (Ricker, 

 1962). 



A marked disparity in numbers in even- 

 and odd-year lines of pink salmon has existed 

 for many years in Sashin Creek on Baranof 

 Island, southeastern Alaska (Olson and McNeil, 

 1967). Spawners were abundant in even- and 

 odd-numbered years between 1934 and 1945, 

 after which both lines declined sharply until 

 1957 when spawners again became abundant 

 in the odd years. Those in the even years re- 

 mained scarce through 1958. In 1950, 1952, 

 I960, and 1962 most of the adults and fry were 

 killed in an attempt to determine the numbers 

 of adults that strayed into Sashin Creek. ^ The 

 relatively few adults in the even-year lines 

 between 1952 and 1964 were probably n-iostly 

 strays from other streams. 



In 1964 we transplanted adult pink salmon 

 from another area to Sashin Creek to develop 

 handling methods and to reestablish a signifi- 

 cant even-year line. In this report we describe 

 the methods used to transplant the adults and 

 discuss their distribution on the spawning 

 ground and the survival of their progeny in 

 fresh water and the ocean. 



TRANSPLANTATION TO SASHIN CREEK 



The adult pink salmon transplanted to Sashin 

 Creek in 1964 were taken from the estuary of 

 a small stream in the North Arn-i of Bear 

 Harbor (fig. 1). Most of the adult pink salmon 

 normally enter and spawn in the Bear Harbor 

 stream between mid-August and mid-Septem- 

 ber (Rosier, Johnston, and Orrell, 1965)--the 

 same time that adults enter Sashin Creek. 

 We made no observations on the physical 

 characteristics of the Bear Harbor stream. 



The term "brood year" refers to the year of spawning 

 and is not necessarily synonymous with "year class." The 

 term "line" was used by Ricker (1962) because there is 

 no genetic Interchange between odd and even years. 



^Harry, George Y., Jr., and Jerrold M. Olson. 1963. 

 Straying of pink salmon to Sashin Creek, Little Port Wal- 

 ter Bay. Manuscript on file Bur. Commer. Fish. Biol. 

 Lab., Auke Bay, Alaska. 



Several thousand adult pink salmon were cap- 

 tured with a purse seine in Bear Harbor at 

 0900 hours on August 23, 1964. Part of the 

 cat':h was brailed into two tanks of sea water 

 aboard the MV Jack B. Each tank measured 

 1.8 by 1.8 by 6.3 m. and received 870 liters 

 of fresh sea water per minute. Water was 

 pumped in through the bottonn and overflowed 

 at the top. 



Loading was connpleted at 1030, and the Jack 

 B. arrived at Little Port Walter Bay (the es- 

 tuary of Sashin Creek) at 1745. The fish were 

 released into a floating pound ( 1 by 1 by 2 m. 

 deep) at 1800. 



The first fish was removed from the pound 

 and released above a weir in Sashin Creek on 

 August 25 (2 days after capture), and the last 

 was released on August 28. The fish were 

 transported the 400 m. from the pound to the 

 stream in small floating pens (1.7 by 3.3 by 

 1.0 m. deep). Herring purse seine netting 

 (square mesh openings of 2.5 cm.) was used 

 in the pound and pens. A nnore detailed de- 

 scription of the capture and transport of the 

 fish from Bear Harbor to Sashin Creek ap- 

 peared in a preliminary report. 



Of 2,395 pink salnnon put into the tanks of the 

 Jack B., 388 died en route to Little Port Walter 

 Bay and five died later (17 percent of the fe- 

 males and 10 percent of the males). Some 

 salmon were dead on the bottom of the tanks 

 after the fourth hour in transit, but the cause 

 of their deaths is not known. Although the 

 water that overflowed from the tanks contained 

 only 3 mg. /I. of dissolved oxygen, no distressed 

 fish were seen at the surface of the tanks. 

 Factors that could have contributed to the 

 deaths were buildup of blood lactate levels 

 from hyperactivity (Black, 1958; Parker, Black, 

 and Larkin, 1959) and psychological stress 

 (Ellis, 1964), and internal injuries from han- 

 dling. 



We released 727 males and 1,139 females in 

 Sashin Creek above the weir and 150 tagged 

 males into the bay. Thirty- six untagged fish 

 escaped into the bay (table 1). 



Between August 30 and September 19, 327 

 adult pink salmon (I6I males and 166 fe- 

 males) swam through the weir and entered 

 Sashin Creek. Forty of these were from the 

 group of 150 males tagged and released in 

 the bay. Presumably the rest (121 males 

 and 166 females) originated in other streanns 

 and strayed into Sashin Creek. This pre- 

 sumption is based on our belief that we killed 

 all of the fry produced by the four female 

 pink salmon that spawned in Sashin Creek in 

 1962. 



" Vessels and crews for this experiment were loaned 

 by Pacific American Fisheries, Inc. 



8 Smedley, Stephen C., and William J. McNeil. 1966. 

 Freshwater survival of pink salmon transplanted to Sashin 

 Creek, Baranof Island, Alaska. State of Alaska, Depart- 

 ment of Fish and Game, Informational Leaflet 91, 21 pp. 



